Behavior analysis in instructional design: A functional typology of verbal tasks.
Sort every teaching task by verbal operant and set rate-based mastery to keep teams aligned.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors built a simple chart that names every kind of verbal task a trainer can give. They used Skinner’s words: mand, tact, intraverbal, echoic, and so on.
After a short lesson, new raters sorted sample tasks into the chart. Most picks matched, so the chart was judged ready for real course design.
What they found
People with only a quick briefing could label tasks the same way. The chart made adult instruction clearer and faster to plan.
How this fits with other research
Wooderson et al. (2022) later showed that foreign-language tact drills create more new skills than other verbal drills. Their big review used the same tact label the 1981 chart offers, proving the old boxes still guide today’s lessons.
Rast et al. (1985) took the chart into autism therapy. They taught kids to mand and tact around the same toy, showing the typology works outside staff training.
Buskist et al. (1988) pushed the field further. They said, “Stop just naming tasks—sell products that use them.” That call turns the 1981 map into market-ready curricula and apps.
Why it matters
If you write staff training, parent lessons, or client programs, list each activity with its verbal operant. Then set rate goals like “20 tacts per minute.” This small step gives every team the same language and the same finish line.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Open your current lesson plan, tag each step as mand, tact, or intraverbal, and add a fluency aim.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
This paper describes and illustrates a typology of verbal instructional tasks for advanced classroom instruction and inservice training. The typology is based upon functional definitions of elementary and conceptual behavior, and incorporates the kinds of goals and objectives that surveys and research have shown to be important for experienced learners. The typology's metastructure is B. F. Skinner's (1957) verbal behavior classification system. This paper describes Skinner's system as a context for understanding and selecting instructional tasks for experienced learners. This paper also discusses rate of response as an important dimension of proficiency or mastery, and procedures for selecting proficiency criteria of tasks in the typology are also described. Results of the first of a series of validation studies indicated that high agreement between typology designer and subjects' classification of tasks can be attained after a short training session. The typology is discussed as a vehicle for standardizing instructional research and practice, and as a basis for research on transfer of control across classes of verbal behavior. Implications for research on building fluency of adult performance, and efficiency in instructional design are also discussed.
The Behavior analyst, 1981 · doi:10.1007/BF03391859